The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1887-11-04
THE PLAQUES OF INDIA.
SOME OF THE TORRENTS OF Ex.
iSTENCE IN THE ORIENT.

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None but those who have become
| parched and crisped by the desiccating
sun of India-who have travelled reeking
on the cracked and splintered earth, be-
meath the great sky fixed ocean of molten
silver-can appreciate thoroughly the free,
broad, bracing freshness of Californian
breeze. The surface of everything un-
sheltered is polished by the suns rays nm
til the eye becomes bleared with merely
| doing its duty. The sleek backs and
wings of the thousand crows which twit
on the path shine like new rupees the
green leaves hang motionless and glisten
as the wayelets in the sea. Even the ma
tves, brought forth by parents who have
never known another land, have huge
| turbans over and round their heads, and
more particularly on that portion of the
neck Immediately below the organ Of
philoprogenitiveness, lest the sun should
smite them in his wrath
To guard against the dangerous influence
Of the sun man has sought out many In
| ventions. Carriages have double roofs;
hats are built of pith and are ventilated by
a cunning cupola in miniature ingeniously
implanted in the crown; parasols are gi-
gantic wooden mushrooms, and garments
are Of any substance that can possibly be
obtained, which, in weight and fiber, does
not exceed gossamer. The walls of the
houses are about three feet thick, veran-
daed and terraced round. The rooms are
halls worthy of containing the common
council of any small American mining
town. They are matted and not carpeted,
unless In some houses where appearances
are more studied than comfort The glass
windows have each outer ones of wood,
similar to the Venitian ones so prevalent
in Californian houses. These are closely
shut fourteen hours of the twenty-four.
Huge squares Of matted straw are placed
before such openings as cannot be closed,
and it is the duty Of servant to sprinkle
them with the coolest water obtainable ten
times an hour.
The motive is obvious. The hot wind
passing through the damp cusca is cooled
almost to welcome point, and from a
scourge transferred by simple device into
a refreshment We live in the breath of
the punka, for all day and night ser
want stands by to fan us. If he halts for
one second glow of feYerish heat steals
over US, and the punka wallan submits
mutely TO the castigation he deserves and
most inevitably gets. These poor wretches,
possessed, it may be, of more intellect than
brutes, but undoubtedly of less instinct
and sagacity, ply their monotonous occu-
pations like pieces of III fitting machinery.
They are certain to fall asleep unless re-
tanned at high pressure by the constant ap-
plication of q horsewhip.
The second plague in life in India, fully
as monstrous as the first, is-servants
Take professional man whose income is
800 rupees, or $3.50, a month. He does
not desire, in all probability, to domesti-
cate himself in the cherries circle Of q
boarding house community, where his alb
solute cost to the amiable landlady will
be about 20 rupees per month, ON which
he is called every four weeks to pay 800
per cent. He therefore takes house and
becomes, he blindly imagines, ''his own
master"
The house is taken. 1t is situated in a
compound" which means in America
cts own ground" So spontaneous Is
vegetation that a "mallee" lgardener) Is
indispensable. Let the masters tastes be
ever so much inclined to till his own gar
den and rear marvels in botany and horti-
culture, the heat forbids him. The pay of
the malice will vary between and 8
rupees per month 90. The next neces-
sary creature is the "mater," or house
sweeper man who always seems the
acme of devotedness and activity, but who
has really remarkably easy life of it gen
orally. His pay is equal to the mallee's.
The "bhestie," who may be met with in
the twelve signs of the zodiac under the
nomenclature of "Aquarius," is the serv-
ant to whom the tractable and sensitive
heart most inchnes to be liberal. He fills
his muscock ", IA sealskin) many times a
day with pure water and replenishes the
bath. He fills the house buckets and del
uges the carriage when it is being cleaned.
Our gratitude, extreme as it is, goes no
further than rupees. Then comes the
table servants and the cook. Pursuing
the list we reach the "sirdarbearer. "
This man trims the lamps and pulls the
punka, and does nothing else for the
world. His wages are rupees.
Another and even more important man
is the bearer. Say, old Indian of thirty
hot years standing, how often have you
blessed this man above all others? He is
valet, banker and general protector over
all things you may possess he wipes you
dry as finder when you issue from your
bath; he puts your hose on while you sit
on chair In reverie; he does the same
good turn for all the garments you desire
to don. He has your hat and gloves beau
tifully prepared for you; he takes charge
of your floating capital in the way of any
odd rupees which you may happen to
leave in your discarded waistcoat, and
you may safely trust him with thousand.
He studies your every movement and re-
places all mutilated buttons; in fact, he is
to great extent wife, and If you give
him a full and valuable wardrobe to be
lord and master over as long as he may
stay in your service, you will find 1t undi-
minished and precisely as you gave it.
If a resident here is a married man he
may, In the nature of things, be blessed
with household gods-each god needs an
"ayah." She is, of course, a female ser
want, and the most troublesome, except
the syces, of them all. The wages of an
ayah are very changeable and unixed,
few under 10 rupees month are of much
good, though some are obtainable at half
that sum. Besides the regular ayah to
the wife and each child there must be the
"materanni" It Is her business to do
certain things which, If executed by the
others, would lose them their castles.
To readers versed in the technicalities
of natural history the third plague OF
India viii be recognizable by the name Of
''culex," but is better known by the name
of mosquito. The curtains round our
beds at nights are not only valuable safe
guards against mosquitoes, but against O
hundred other insects, some of them very
repulsive in appearance. Grasshoppers,
flying beetles, fire flies and others yet
more horrible would invade our sanctu-
airy, but can only gaze at MS through the
delicate squares of our gauze prison.
They hum and buzz untiringly, like the
| singing fish Of Cevlon occasionally Tisino